1. Learn not to speak evil about anyone. Gossip, malice, and slander are like poison in your aura. Whenever you do these things, they increase like microbes and cover your whole aura with their poison and contamination.

Do not speak ill about friends, even in jest. One day a girl came to see me because she was having some troubles with her husband and she could not find any cause for it. “Can I ask you something?” I said. “Do you sometimes criticize or talk ill about your husband, even for the sake of fun?” “Oh, yes, I do that a lot.” “That’s it. You are weakening your whole relationship. With your little words, you are putting one drop of poison into a barrel of pure water and contaminating the whole barrel of water.”

Whenever you speak ill against a friend, you will find there is a wall built between you and him. This wall must be eliminated if you want to increase your love.

2. If you hurt anyone, ask his forgiveness. Do not think that you are becoming smaller by asking for forgiveness. On the contrary, you are building your love. It does not matter whether the other person did something wrong, too. If you were wrong, ask for forgiveness. Actually, it does not matter who is wrong or right. If you know that you hurt someone, ask for his forgiveness. Forgiveness can change the whole atmosphere of your family, office, church, or group.

3. Meditate on the fact that people are different from each other, but God is one within them. Think about the oneness in all living forms. We are separate individuals, but within us, God is one.

4. Help those who are in need. This will create tremendous love within you. Once I was visiting a household and the fourteen-year-old son was struggling with his algebra. He had an exam the next morning, and he needed help. I sat and worked with him until three o’clock in the morning. I was the happiest man; I went home full of love—because the boy was now enlightened about his algebra problems.

5. Daily, monthly, and yearly share something with others.

6. Never carry the thought that you are better than others. This is the greatest human weakness and a feeling that really defeats you.

7. Rejoice for those who do something for humanity. This greatly increases your joy. Sometimes I see someone in the United Nations or Senate speaking so beautifully on television and I shout from my chair, “Good for you! That’s so beautiful!” It is so important to encourage people.

What if we would start printing in the headlines the beautiful things that people are doing to help others, instead of printing headlines about crimes and murders? We must go in the right direction—which is toward increasing love.

8. Do not kill, and do not make others kill. The commandment, “Do not kill,” was given to us 6000 years ago, and still we do not understand it. It was Buddha who added the second part, “And don’t make others kill,” when He saw people claiming they were not killing while they were making other people kill for them.

You cannot destroy what God built. If you kill somebody, that same person may eventually kill you in another life. This is the Law of Karma: whatever you sow you are going to reap. How can we make people listen to this advice?

9. The less you hurt people, the more love you have. When you hurt people, you really destroy the reservoirs of your love. Do not waste your love by hurting others.

10. Increase gratitude within you. This increases your love.

11. Do not condemn people but understand them.

12. Sometimes do the following exercise for two to three minutes: Visualize a closed, golden lotus behind your shoulder blades. Then visualize it opening with golden petals and a blue light manifesting.

When you increase your love, you increase your life. When you increase your life, you become more creative and more useful for the One Life.